WWII bomb kills worker at Malaysia construction site

A Bangladeshi worker was killed and two others seriously injured when a bomb said to be left over from the Second World War exploded at the site of a new underground rail station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Initial reports said lightning caused the 5pm (local time) explosion yesterday at the Bandar Malaysia South underground station site, with workers suffering loss of legs and hands.

But by the end of the day police confirmed that the blast in the commercial development Bandar Malaysia was from an old unexploded bomb from the Second World War.

One of the workers today was confirmed to have died from his injuries. A statement from the contractor, a Malaysian joint venture, MMC Gamuda KVMRT, said the condition of the other two workers was worsening.

In the Second World War Kuala Lumpur was occupied by Japanese Imperial forces in their conquest of British Malaya, and was bombed by the US air force.

The station is one of 11 being built for the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (KVMRT) Sungai Buloh-Serdang-Putrajaya (SSP) Line. It will be 32.4 miles in length, with just over 8 miles underground, serving a corridor with a population of nearly two million people.

Photograph: Work under way in July 2016 at Tun Razak Exchange MRT Station, Kuala Lumpur, three stops along the SSP Line from the Bandar Malaysia South station where an explosion occurred at around 5pm on 10 October, 2017 (MMC Gamuda KVMRT)